The growth of the cable and assembly industry has been spurred by demand for faster Internet connections and improved networking capabilities. Shipments of fiber-optic cables are forecast to grow from US$1.2 billion in2005 to US$4 billion by 2010, with the highest growth application coming from data centers, according to research on the high performance structured cabling system market. Shipments of coaxial cables also grew by approximately 15 percent in 2005 despite intense competition from other data transmission cables.

Due to the low technological threshold, the cable and assembly industry is now a mature industry where the majority of the makers have been around for at least a decade.

In mainland China, the cable and assembly industry expects significant growth as the country's multi-channel TV sector is projected to reach US$7.3 billion by 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate of 12.5 percent for cable, satellite and IP video on aggregate.

Output of cables and assemblies by mainland China makers is projected to register 16.8 percent growth in 2006.

Mainland China has more than 400 manufacturers of cables and assemblies including fiber-optic cables, coaxial cables and flat-ribbon cables. Most of these makers are located in Guangdong, Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

Taiwan also remains as a manufacturing hub for high-end cables and assemblies. It has a supplier base of about 700 manufacturers, of which many have transferred or expanded manufacturing facilities in mainland China.

The main export markets for makers are North America, Western Europe and East Asia. This report covers key trends, developments and issues affecting the production and export of cables and assemblies in Greater China. It is based on supervised factory visits and personal interviews with manufacturers.

The report includes coverage of 84 manufacturers — 46 from mainland China, 29 from Taiwan, and nine from Hong Kong. The following sections highlight some of the key findings:

Manufacturing capability • None of the makers reported an unused capacity of more than 50 percent. In fact, about 18 percent of the companies utilize more than 90 percent of their capacities. Most of the makers will maintain high production volumes in 2006
• About half of the companies have facilities that contain more than 10 production lines. In some cases, there are as many as 30 production lines.
• Coaxial cables are produced by the majority of makers, particularly those in mainland China. About 17 percent of the makers produce fiber-optic cables.
• Seventy-three percent of the makers offer OEM services.